Welcome! This is a safe place with good people. We have a pretty dim view of the church at times, but I haven't found a better place for support if you're struggling to deal with the LDS church in one way or another.

Welcome to the ward family! We have a very diverse ward with people in all stages of faith transition. We also have members who have moved on to other religions or belief systems, and members who have decided that the best life for them is one without spiritualty or religion. Despite our diversity we've made a great place where we can share, learn, grow, laugh, cry and heal. Welcome to the fold Tapirrider!

Yes, you are not the crazy person in this relationship with the church. The LDS church is not necessarily evil, but it does insist on holding more moral authority than seems warranted. I encourage you to figure out what your moral center truly should be and use that to make a better life for yourself whether or not you keep your LDS membership and a temple recommend.

Be kind to the believers around you, especially if you are married to one. It turns out that only the rarest of believers really want to know what you think about the LDS church unless it matches an orthodox position espoused in general conference. It's rarely useful to burn bridges with your loved ones. Don't spend time justifying any break from LDS standards. Instead, find a more authentic way to live and let the believers come to you.

The LDS church does not fear persecution. It fears being ignored. In light of that, we are not trying to tear down the LDS church. It still works for many people including a lot of spouses of regular board members. A surprising number of regular forum posters hold a current temple recommend and a ward calling for their own reasons.

You are not going to offend anyone with even handed criticism of the LDS church, but we want discussions to be civil. It's not that interesting or helpful to say, "The church sucks!" Instead, we are better off starting a discussion with, "The LDS church has been profoundly unhelpful to me and my family when it does this thing..."

OK, you may have a point. I have to grant that you backed up your statement with a long list of discernably true instances when that giant sucking sound can be quickly attributed to a single root cause. That does seem to make the church suck.

"I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order" - Kurt Vonnegut